I held my first official baby shower for my girlfriend. Which is not a an actual birthday party, but is a celebraion of a birth. This is her first baby which is a girl, so of course pink was used everywhere. The reoccuring theme was umbrellas and fashion. I found these party napkins on clearance that had little umbrellas all over them. In addition, she is a very hip and fashionable woman from head to toe. It just so happen a new partyware line called Fasionable/Mod mom that had a really chic pregnant woman with an umbrella was out. I made the invitations by downloading that graphic from this partyware. I placed the standard party info, nothing fancy, stuffed them in pink envelopes and placed "It's A Girl" sticker to close it.

DECORATIONS: I purchased umbrellas at the 99 cent store in the party colors, purple and green. I could not find baby pink only fuschia, so I used pink streamer and balloons. I placed 2 purple umbrellas above the buffet table upside down, with streamers tied to the handle and attached to each point on the umbrella. I did the same thing over my dining room table with a green umbrella. I wrapped my large island that was doubling as the buffet table with wrapping paper in similiar colors that had little umbrellas all over them. I used the other green umbrella over the gift table that I had on the side with a pink plastic table cover. I hung pink ballons from a few of the points. I purchased 2 dozen green and pink helium filled balloons from our local party store that I tied in alternating colors up my banister and along the railing upstairs. I also took the balloons and tied them off to stack of 3 diapers and laid on the buffet table and dining room table.

I took several stuffed animals and made a centerpiece in the middle of my dining table. I purchased 2 packages of plastic blocks at the 99 cent only store and my green pig stuffed animal and made another centerpiece on my breakfast table. I also hung the pink balloons that I blew up my self from the light fixture over the breakfast table and the fireplace mantle. Last, I purchased large, about 3 ft tall, pinwheels that were in pastel colors at Big Lots on sale for $1.24. Each one came with a smaller pinwheel. I stuck the large pinwheels in the ground up and down the walkway of my house to mark my house as the place to be. I took the smaller ones and placed them on the spindles of my stair case. I also purchased a "It's A Girl" sign from the Dollar Tree to place in the yard too.

FOOD: We used really nice silver chaffing dishes to give the party an upscale look. Her mother caters already, so she supplied the food. I made cupcakes and placed plastic pink pacifers on top of each one, we displayed them on a 3 tier cake plate holder. I made pink lemonade and placed in a clear punch bowl and bottles for more pink on the buffet table. We had pink and white forks and spoons placed in pink and green mini metal pails. My mother saw this recipe for making a layer dessert with sherbet. We used Rasberry and Lime, pink and green, for the party colors. When you are done with the whole thing is looks like a cake and when sliced shows the different layers and colors, very pretty. You simple take one flavor spread it around a bowl, push a smaller bowl into the layer to make a "bowl", and let harden. You repeat this with the next flavor. Last you fill in the "bowl" with the last flavor or vanilla ice cream and let freeze over night. You place the bowl in warm water to loosen the sherbet, place a plate over the bowl and flip over onto plate. You will need to put it back into the freezer until ready to serve.

GAMES/ACTIVITIES: Of course we had the bottle sucking races and since it was a co-ed party, we had the guys only play this game. I purchased plastic disposable bibs for them to put on, sat them around the dining table, and made them suck for 1 1/2 minutes. I had Pin the Bow Tie on the Hunk that I happened to purchase on clearance at Target for the girls, but we never got around to playing. I purchased two 10 packs of solid pastel bibs and had guests, kids and adults, decorate with fabric paint. We are building a shadow boxes for all 20 bibs to place in the baby's room. We played How far Around?, where you take ribbon and the guest has to determine how much ribbon it will take to go around the mommy's belly. Another game we played was How Many? I placed pink q tips in a 5 oz bottle and had guests guess how many of them were in there. For prizes, I found lots of goodies to give away, travel size body sprays and lotions, candles, and the umbrellas. I also found the Mr. and Ms. Wonderful dolls at the Dollar Tree and clearance asile at Walgreens that made great prizes.

PARTY FAVOR/THANK YOU BAG: I purchased green small lunch sacks at Big lots (15/$.99), pink soap at Dollar General (3/$.50), travel size dove soap ($.13), and pastel shower loofah sponges at the Dollar Tree (6/$1). I put all the items in the bag and folded closed. I took an image from the fashionable/mod mom partyware that had 3 pregnant womany nicely dressed with hats, umbrellas, and bags shrunk it to fit on address labels and typed 'THANK YOU' across it to close up the bag. Last, I did something special for the mom to be, I made a scrapbook to document her pregnancy, baby shower, birth, and all the baby's firsts. I purchased an empty book at the dollar store, then slowly purchased all the staples of a scrapbook from various craft stores. I also used paint chips from local hardware stores for color, picture borders, and journaling. Some of the paint chips had paint names like Newborn, Baby Girl, and all kinds of different princesses that came in handy on some of the pages. It was a successful party and I had several woman wanting to recruit me to plan their baby shower when they are expecting.